Monday, August 13, 2012

Teaching Bobby: Doubles Game!

My 8-year old son has really been wanting to play more 40k, so I've been happy to oblige him. He's getting a good grip on the basic rules, but there are so many different kinds of armies with their own rules that he's kind of overwelmed: information overload.

Still, he's making some decent decisions, and those he plays with and against are more than helpful. This past weekend we were lucky enough to have a Doubles Game, with Bobby and Rodrigo using Ultramarines against Arlin and me using Orks!

Arlin has dabbled in both 40k and Fantasy a bit, and this was her first game of 6e. We spent some time making up our lists based on the models we had (with a wee bit of proxy) and came up with this:

We hoped the Weirdboy would help me get extra Waaagh! turns for more Dakkajet shooting, and hoped the mass of Boyz and Kanz would be able to weather the shooting from the Marines and kill them off with a good old fashioned Orky assault!

I had already put together a list for Bobby to try (I keep adding new things in, this would be his first time using Rhinos), part of my master plan to work him up to a really mean (as far as Vanilla SM goes) 2k army:

The missions was The Scouring (and us with no real Fast choices...), and the diagonal-ey triangl-ey deployment. We won the roll to go first and chose to go first (I wanted a chance to shoot up the Rhinos and Dreads before they got to zip around and shoot up the Kanz, respectively). I think we forgot about Warlord traits, meh!

I chose a table side that had some great buildings to plop the Lootas in, and had 3 Objectives in it...with some luck they'd be high-pointers! We lined up all our boyz, with the Kanz supporting those on our left, the Dred and Weirdboy on our right, and the Warboss right in the middle!

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The Green Tide...plus a tasty Iced Mocha!

﻿﻿Bobby split up in to Combat Squads, with 2 ML teams going in to ruins near an objective, with the Dreadnought supporting them. I thought this was smart of him, as the Lootas had no good shots at the Dreads due to the large church at center table. The other Combat Squads were on their left embarked in Rhinos, hoping to push in to our 3 objectives. The Assault Squad hide behind the Land Raider, which was dead center, and the foot tactical squad stayed near the Land Raider to push in somewhere.
We flipped over our Objective counters, and found that we had 8 points of objectives in our little corner! Bobby held the 4-pointer in the ruins where the 2 Missile Launcher and Dreadnoughts were hiding, but we were content to ignore that and hold off the Land Raider and 2 Rhinos heading our way!

Turn 1

We pushed most of the boyz forward a bit, along with the Dreds, hoping to just move forward and smash in true Orky fashion. Then, in true Orky fashion, the Weirdboy decided that our plans weren't proper, so he decided to Deep Strike his entire unit. As big as the unit was, I decided, wrongly, to place them to threaten Bobby's 4-point Objective, as that was the only real estate I thought I could avoid a million Dangerous Terrain Tests. Bad idea.

Our Shooting didn't do nearly as well as I'd hoped. The Weirdboy's Shoota boyz killed 3 Marines from a Combat Squad, including the Missile Launcher. The Lootas put a ton of damage on the Rhinos, but Bobby was nearly infallible with the Cover Saves, so one was Stunned, and the other only suffered one Glance.

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That damned Weirdboy!!

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The Drop Pod came in, right in the giant hole left by the Weirdboy's disappearing act with 1/4 of our army...

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Drop Pod behind the Ork lines!

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The Land Raider advanced straight at our lines, while the mobile Rhino zipped to mid-table behind the church to try to hide from shooting for a turn. The Tacticals on foot advanced up behind the Raider.

Bobby targeted the Kanz with his Dreads, killing one and taking 1 HP off a second. The Land Raider killed a few Lootas, and the Drop Pod squad killed MANY more. They failed their Morale and ran off the battlements looking for safety. Bobby's Assault Squad backed away after he realized how many Shoota boyz were there, and his tactical squads put Frag and Bolter shots on them, killing a handful.

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Bobby counts the Orks that just teleported in front of him!

﻿ Turn 2

The Deff Dred, now without any support, backs up to deal with the Tactical squad behind it. I foolishly leave my shoota squad in place behind the wall...they should have gone to support the Dred, instead they shot ineffectively at...something. The Lootas rallied, and got back in the Battlements.

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Deff Dred closing in for the kill!

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The Warboss split off from the Choppa boyz and went after the Land Raider, while the Choppa Boyz moved around the other side of the Church to deal with the Rhino. Kanz split up, the wounded Squadron trying to move up to support the Shootas, while the full squad went to support the Warboss against the Raider and Terminator goodness inside.

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Warboss vs Land Raider!

﻿ The Dakkajet came on, lined up to shoot at Dreads. We called the Waaagh, as we thought the Choppa boyz going in to the Rhino and the Deff Dred needed the extra bonus, and we wanted the extra shots from the Jet. The Jet didn't disappoint, killing a Dreadnought with his 18 Twin-linked S6 shots. The 2 Kanz with LOS shot at the Rhino behind the church, and Wrecked it! The Marines inside disembarked out of sight of the Choppa boyz, so they'd not be assaulting this turn. The Warboss didn't do too bad, taking two Points off the Redeemer.
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Dakkajet, engage!

﻿ The Deff Dred made it easily in to combat (she rolled box-cars for his charge!), and took no damage from Overwatch...however, Rod's typical bad luck was countered by Bobby's little-kid-luck, and his squad got 4 hits with Krak Grenades, and three Glances, killing the Dred before it could swing! Ouch!

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Uhoh! Dead Dred!!

﻿ The Marines were quick to jump on our sour turn...the Terminators got out, and the Redeemer Tank Shocked over the Warboss, who ran away!

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Get out of the way, Boss!

﻿ Bobby decided to jump on my Shoota boyz with the Assault Marines. The rest of the Marines shuffled around trying to position themselves to get to objectives later in the game.

'ere dey come, ladz!

The Redeemer Flamestormed down a bunch of boyz, but it wasn't as bad as it might have been.

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Duck, ladz!

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The Assault marines jump in, and begin a protracted combat that lasted until turn 5!

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Jump Marine Assault!

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The Terminators assaulted the Fleeing warboss, he passed his Morale, and I think he clubbed one down before dieing to hammers! The Terminators consolidated behind the Raider.

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Hey, where'd da boss go?!

﻿ Turn 3

Things weren't exactly going according to plan, but that's the Orky way!

Kanz continued to advance to support my Shoota boyz, as did the Dakkajet, and the Choppa boyz moved up behind (note, this was a mistake of ours....instead of hiding behind the hill for a turn they should have been going balls-out to help the Shootas, so they'd all hit at the same time, instead of 2 turns apart). The other Kanz moved to assault the Redeemer, while the other Choppa boyz moved to assault the Terminators. My other Shoota boyz moved to assault the Drop Pod Tacitcals.

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Lootas picked on the last Rhino, killing it, and killed a few Tacticals. Shootas didn't shoot before assaulting, afraid they'd miss their assault!

The Kanz killed the Raider...yeah! The Shoota boyz took heavy losses from overwatch (flamers are mean!), but still got in, and killed off 5 marines total, winning the combat. Rodrigo chose to fail his Morale test, won the Sweeping advance roll, and now had me lined up for an assault and flaming! The Assault Marines and Shootas kept pounding each other. The Choppas and Terminators started beating each other up, too.

As expected, Rod lined me up for a bunch of shooting and an assault....a very good move on his part. Shooting killed another Kan, leaving just one marching across the table, alongside a whole mob of Choppa boyz.

Rod shot with several tactical squads in to my shoota boyz near his drop pod, killed many, and assaulted...he took me below 10, he won combat, I failed morale, needing a 7, even with Bosspole reroll I failed, then was killed by Sweeping Advance. Boo!

The Choppa boyz fighting the Terminators kept wittling them down, I believe at this point there was one TH/SS Terminator and the Librarian with 1 wound left.

The Shoota boyz fighting the Assault Marines had a good round, leaving only the Chaplain and 1 Marine, will I still had about 15 Boyz, including the Nob and wounded Weirdboy.

Turn 4

Arlin and I realized at this point that, as silly as it sounds, we were desperately short on troops. One of my shoota Mobs had been wiped out, the other was being whittled down by Assault Marines. One of Arlin's Choppa boyz was tied up with Terminators at the middle of the table, far from any objective, and her other was struggling to make it past a fence to join the fight! It was too late to turn them around now to head in to our deployment area with its 3 objectives, so we just pressed forward. Hope springs eternal!

The Kanz that had beat up the Raider continued to move to our right to kill the Marines on "our" objective, while the other Kan and Choppas kept advancing in to the Marine's 4-point objective.

Lootas shot at Tacticals. They had the remnants of two squads (about 4-5 guys total, I think) sitting on an objective behind some ruins. The Kanz shot at and killed the last 2 Tacticals on "our" objective near the Drop Pod...that gave them a 2 point and a 4 point objective, and we were about to assault the 4-pointer. Things are looking pretty good!

Arlin's Choppa boyz finally finished off the Terminators, and began running back to an objective.

The Shoota-Assault Marine fight continued, with just the Chaplain left. I taught Bobby about Challenges, he challenged...I accepted with the Weirdboy, I don't know why, just being goofy, and the Weirdboy was of course cut down (I forgot Bobby's Crozius game him S6, wasn't expecting to get punked so easy.)

On their half of the turn, they had very little movement. They were down to less than 20 marines, a drop pod, a dreadnought, and the Chaplain. The "campers" (as I thought of them) sat on their objective on our right, hiding behind the ruins taking shots at Lootas. The rest, including the Dreadnought, started opening up on Arlin's Choppas. One worn-down squad with a Flamer moved up and flamered & double-tapped, killing a lot, combined with the Dread and Missile Launcher squads, we'd lost a lot of strength already!

In the never-ending Assault Marine-Shoota fight, my Nob refused a challenge from the Chaplain, who cut down 3 boys, passing all his armour saves, and took me below fearless...but just barely, and they passed their morale.

Turn 5

So our plan at this point is to push the marines off their 4-point objective, which would give us the win with a 2-pointer that Arlin's Choppas (that had defeated the Terminators) were hunkering down on. So, the Kanz interposed themselves between the "campers" and the higher-point objective near the Drop Pod, and the Choppas pushed forward, assaulting the 3 Tacticals in front of the Marine's 4-point objective. They lost a few to Overwatch (flamers really are good!), and then through some weird little-kid dice rolling worm-hole of ludicrousness, his Marines wouldn't die! Admittedly the unit was pretty strung out, so after the Marine's attacks there weren't that many fighting, but still! 3 Marines!! In the continuing Assault Marine vs Shoota boy fiasco, the Nob again refused the challenge from the Chaplain, the Chaplain chopped down two more boys, made his saves, and the Shoota boyz failed their Morale! The Nob beat one to death with the Bosspole, but they were insistent...Boss, we're outta here! Somehow, though, they weren't killed by Sweeping Advance.

The Kanz and remaining Lootas wish they could score...

In the marine half of the turn, the Chaplain jumped in to the Choppas threatening the 4-point objective, along with the Dreadnought! The Nob was able to kill off the Marines, but the Chaplain and Dreadnought did good work killing off Boyz...not many left now, and too far to contest!

If the game were to end here, we'd lose. Bobby rolls it, and...

Turn 6

We try one simple thing...assault some Tactical boyz with a Killa Kan, and hope to pull them off the objective while our boyz consolidate after killing the Dreadnought and Chaplain to at least contest it.

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The final assault, with Air Support!

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The Kan moves up to the Ruins, then declares the assault. Bobby Overwatches with a Krak Missile...he hits, Arlin fails Cover Save, and Bobby rolls on the Damage Chart...Explodes!

Unbelievable, but hilariously fun!

A 6 to hit, a 5 to pen, a 6 to explode...I told him he had to walk home.

So, the Orks conceded at this point. We had to pack up and head home...this game took us over 4 hours! We added up points:

The Ultramarines got a 1 and 4 point objective, and Warlord (the Warboss) for 6 points!

A win for the Ultramarines!

It was a lot of fun...it's really neat to see Bobby making smart decisions...he has a lot to learn, but is already getting a feel for what his units can do. Rod and Arlin are super fun to play with, and I hope we can do this again very soon!

2000 points on the nose. The focus clearly is on long-range shooting. I think Thunderfires have a lot going for them, even decent anti-vehicle since any part of the blast marker does full Str. Great infantry clearing still, of course, and more durable. The Stormtalons are great vs. enemy Fliers or for side/rear shots on enemy vehicles, and are very durable as well. The Dreads are good anti-vehicle and MC, and their TL will help against fliers (though not a lot...math-hammer says each dread gets just over 1 hit...Meh). The Aegis Line is for the Dreads to stand behind...4+ cover on a vehicle is HUGE, in my opinion. It's like giving them 6 hull points! The tactical guys, well, they suck, but they're versatile and provide 6 scoring units. The Assault Marines Bobby really likes, and they work pretty well as a counter-assault unit, particularly with the Chaplain's rerolls.

Expect more Teaching Bobby posts to come! We assembled his first Stormtalon this weekend, we'll hope to get a game in with it soon! :)